The Weekly T2 Challenge
Challenge yourself every week to be the best version of yourself! Team Challenge Every Week!
This week we are doing a nutritional challenge.
It's a deloading week, so your challenge will (and should) feel light. It's actually a sleep challenge. Every night this week, shoot for a minimum of 7.5 hours of sleep per night. That's roughly 5 sleep cycles (each lasts 75-90 minutes). If you can get 9 hours (6 cycles) that's even better. We're putting the effort into sleeping for recovery purposes.
Here's a challenge you'll absolutely love! In any 1 workout this week (you choose), get into an isometric position for every rest break you take. Here's a short list of choices and you can select just one if you really want to work on that position or rotate among them. Also feel free to add any you like.
Bonus Plank Challenge! After the Primary section and before the Accessory in any 2 workouts this week, see how long you can hold a face down plank on elbows. Years ago, PB did it for 7 minutes with a 60 pound sandbag on his back. But for now, if you can break one minute, you're doing fine.
This week has an exceptionally delightful training split. And it presents a very unique challenge. Invest strongly in Workout A and B, then resist the temptation to overdo it in Workout C. It's all about the art of recovery. Our goal this month is building strength and muscle, and producing quality output. This necessitates getting a solid recovery in between the focused sessions. This requires a level of confidence and trust. Be confident in knowing that recovery sessions are when your body really makes the gains. And trust the system. It works.
The HYROX Lite Workout
Air squat your bodyweight in reps at the end of Workout C, one (not both) day this week. For example, if you weigh 172 pounds...do that number in reps. Take as many breaks as you need. It is time Simba!
The training split we are using this month, perhaps more than any other, can make your muscles sore. That's sort of what we're going after because working to mild (very important that mild is the key word) soreness is a great stimulus for muscular growth or hypertrophy. That stated, we don't really to like to make Lifetime Athletes too sore, ever. So use your judgment but here is the challenge. Don't cut the volume short this week. If you are feeling a bit sore, just lighten your loads (because we are using RPE anyway) and lengthen your rest breaks. We have to keep the workload high to "convince" the body to adapt. As always, post a question in Member Submissions if you need assistance with this concept and challenge.
Ok...this is exciting! The Primary sections of Workout A, B, and C have 15, 15, and 18 sets respectively. That's 48 sets. With each workout being done twice this week, there are 96 total main sets in our training. Your challenge is to complete all 96 sets of the exercises. This isn't easy and it requires intelligence and dedication. The secret is in keeping weight fairly light (for now) and making the first goal to get every rep done with good form. You got this!
Cool challenge this week. We're wrapping up the Lean4LIFE 30-day Challenge and we're in transitional mode between the Agility Block, and the Strength (and hypertrophy) Block.
Several of you have requested some more stringent tasks within the Lean4Life 30-day Challenge. Ok...here you go. This week:
Lots of challenges going on right now. We're deep in the Lean4LIFE 30-day Challenge, learning about bodcompopp and applying a variety of principles.
Double challenge this week. In Workout A, in the accessory segment, you've got air squats. Make them ATG. Every single one. In Workout B, the dreaded pullups are ever present. Intentionally reduce your assist (or eliminate it).
This week's challenge is very conceptual. Some of you may recall the term "toit" (like a tiger) from Austin Powers Goldmember. Jokes aside, this is a quality we are looking for in our movements. It's "cat-like agility" in which everything in the body is working together in unison. It's relaxed and smooth but it's also tight and connected. Not tight in the sense of being stiff and awkward, but more like taut and springy. Look for areas in your movements where things feel a little disconnected, herky-jerky, and slinky-dinky. See if you can tighten it up just enough that it both looks and feels better. Using a mirror and training partner can help. So can snagging a quick vidclip of yourself. You can even send it into Member Submissions for review.
This week's challenge is simple. Just do a little something that looks like training...every day. It doesn't even have to be a full session or one of our scheduled workouts. It's a big holiday week and you should enjoy celebrating the season and deloading a bit. Just do enough to feel good and keep your training habit alive. In this way, you don't exhaust yourself or get too sore so you can jump into January feeling rested and ready to go.
Double challenge this week.
Here's your challenge. Take a look at The AnimalFit Jump Test and try to get a sense of how your body prefers to jump. We'll be using a lot of jumping and footwork (as per our plan) this winter and it's valuable to know your go-to movement patterns (even though we train them all).
We've got three different aerobic/anaerobic (cardio) training exposures in this week's programming. Each are to be performed twice. The high intensity session uses Zone 5 (out of 5...near readline) for 10 seconds, and then Zone 1 (super easy) for 50 seconds. This makes a 1:5 work to rest ratio for those who are interested.
Happy Thanksgiving! As we go through this week, and particularly on Thursday -- my challenge to you is DON'T BEAT YOURSELF UP OVER FOOD CHOICES. Splurge a little. Enjoy. Remove any guilt or self-loathing. You work so hard and do so well all year, a little indulgence not only hurts nothing, it's warranted.
Feet are amazing aspects of anatomical architecture. Your challenge is to make sure yours are happy this week. With all the locomotion we've been doing this fall, it's natural for feet to get tired or sore. But we need to avoid injury. Make sure all your footwear (that you use for training in particular) is in good shape. Also, take a cool soak and then lay down with your legs up on the wall for a few minutes, pumping your ankles a bit as well.
This week's workouts have a LOT of challenge in them. But they focus mainly on doing a high volume of one, or just several things. Our challenge is to relax and not worry that if we aren't doing everything , all the time (this approach never works anyway) that we will somehow not be ass-kicking hard to kill Lifetime Athletes. Trust the system. Trust your talent. Dominate.
In keeping with our delightful recent theme of bodyweight exercise challenges, it's time to face the pullup. This is a function of brachiation that we humans need to retain. Too many times I hear "I can't" when pullups are mentioned. Well, I can't hear that shit because yes you can, and should, be able to do a pullup or several. Even if you are a 75 year old granny. I see so many older dudes and chicks on YouTube killing it in the gym...let's work for it as well.
The pushup, also known in our circle as the POOOSHUPP, is probably the most popular and well recognized bodyweight exercise. Now, this week, at during any workout you like...BANG OUT 100 PUSHUPS! It doesn't matter how many breaks you take, just get it done.